BELVIDERE - Belvidere North High School has joined the age of flip instruction.

Science students enrolled for such classes as anatomy, biology and chemistry have been practicing the method that first emerged in the 1990s. Even billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has given the practice a ringing endorsement.

Some Belvidere North teachers gave a February presentation on the method that involves students watching videos and doing computer simulations as homework and then returning to the classroom for discussion and assignments.

Galena’s science department visited the school in the fall to check things out.

“The use of class time is improved immensely by using this type of instruction,” Belvidere North Principal Marc Eckmann said. “We know we’re doing something right when people from the outside want to come to see what we’re doing.”

Schools across the nation have been trying flipped instruction, including those with the Rockford School District.